Parents’ Guide – Trackmania Turbo

We’ve been getting hands on recently with the Ubisoft and Nadeo corker which is Trackmania Turbo. If you’ve seen the review above, you may already know we are absolutely crackers for this title, and if you love Arcade racers we’d put money on you loving it too.

Trackmania never tries to be realistic, happy instead to be an arcade dream, pitting you against your friends, the world, and yourself as you race to be the very best. As well as giving you ghosts for Bronze – Gold medals, and ghosts of all your friends who’ve played Trackmania (even if they only played the Free Beta) there’s still the Trackmaster to race for, as you look to beat the creator of the track itself.

Everything seems to come together beautifully in Trackmania. With an electro soundtrack full of 80s vibes, the music pulls you along the track, as well as the commentators offering encouragement as you put your foot to the floor, and try and shave of 100th of a second to grab the first place on your friends list. The music volume and clarity is also tied directly to your speed, and it works like a charm as the music swells and builds as you accelerate along the track.

As well as a huge number of official tracks to race through and master (200 tracks, with four categories over five difficulties) before we even look at the ability to build your own tracks and share them with friends, and indeed the world, the replayability score on this one is high. As well as official and friends, you can even take part in one off tracks, with the random track generator creating a race before your very eyes as the title works its magic. With a price tag currently of £29.99 of 39.99 for Dollars and Euros, it is definitely offering a lot for your money, and it’s unlikely we’ll run out of things to do in the near future.

The social aspects of Trackmania Turbo are immense. With the friend’s ghost cars it offers a multiplayer feel even when you’re offline, and we are very happy indeed to see splitscreen available within the title, something which we love dearly and are mourning the loss of through most modern games. Though you never really get good at Trackmania, just getting a little better each time, the title pulls you back again and again as you move up the medal ranks, past your friends, and then finally take on the creator to get Trackmaster. Even then, with your rankings in your local area, wider area and the world shown after each and every race, even being Trackmaster doesn’t mean you’re the number one. In the words of my old school masters – “Must Try Harder”

The Run down

Graphics: 10/10: While it’s not a realistic title that we see with a lot of racing titles these days, Trackmania absolutely owns the slightly off-world arcade visuals that we’d expect from its predecessors. We’ve not seen a step wrong graphically, and we’re loving the landscapes and detail surrounding the tracks as well

Story: 0/10: Well what were we expecting here? Not much, and that’s exactly what we got. There’s no story available within Trackmania, unless you creative types and mock up something in your head about being the very best (driver) like no-one ever was

Sound: 10/10:the sound within Trackmania is wonderfully realised. The electro tracks are great in themselves, with 80s vibes thrown in often for good measure, but the true genius was linking the car’s speed directly to the clarity and volume of the music. Slow, and you’ll hardly hear anything, but accelerate away and it’ll build into a tack which will pull you along by your bootstraps

Replayability: 10/10:There’s a lot to do in Trackmania. As well as 200 official tracks to master, your friends ghosts and the splitscreen option will keep you coming back again and again. On top of that, your cars are customizable as well, to an extent, and you’ll unlock new bits and pieces as you go

Satisfaction: 10/10:Well, we’re super chuffed with Trackmania Turbo. It’s hit all our buttons and the visuals, sound, gameplay and online features come together to make this a special one. With so much to do it’s definitely worth the price tag, and with it being fun for all the family, we’d suggest you get to your retailer of choice and purchase this today. If you do get out and get it, feel free to add PBSF Pendragon if you’re on Xbox, and give us some new best times to race against!